A notable historie containing foure voyages made by
certaine French Captaines into Florida
: Wherein the
great riches and fruitefulnesse of the Countrey with
the maners of the people hitherto concealed are brought
to light, written all, saving the last, by Monsieur
Laudonniere, who remained there himselfe as the
French Kings Lieutenant a yeere and a quarter:
Translated out of French into English by M. Richard
Hakluyt.
An Epistle Dedicatorie to sir Walter Ralegh, prefixed by master Richard Hakluyt
before the history of Florida
, which he translated out of French 1587
To the right honourable Sir Walter Ralegh Knight,
Captaine of her Majesties Gard
, Lord Warden of the
Stanneries, and her Highnesse Lieutenant generall of
the
County of Cornewall, R. H. wisheth true felicite.
SIR, after that this historie, which had bene concealed
many yeeres, was lately committed to print and published
in France under your Name by my learned friend M.
Martine Basanier of Paris, I was easily enduced to turne
it into English, understanding that the same was no lesse
gratefull to you here, then I know it to be acceptable to
many great and worthie persons there. And no marvaile
though it were very welcome unto you, and that you liked
of the translation thereof, since no history hitherto set
forth hath more affinitie, resemblance or conformitie with
yours of Virginia
, then this of Florida
. But calling to
minde that you had spent more yeeres in France then I,
and understand the French better then my selfe, I forthwith perceived that you approoved mine endevour, not
for any private ease or commoditie that thereby might
redound unto you, but that it argued a singular and
especiall care you had of those which are to be employed
in your owne like enterprise, whom, by the reading of
this my translation, you would have forewarned and
admonished aswell to beware of the gross negligence in
providing of sufficiency of victuals, the securitie, disorders, and mutinies that fell out among the French, with
the great inconveniences that thereupon ensued, that by
others mishaps they might learne to prevent and avoyde
the like, as also might be put in minde, by the reading of
the manifolde commodities and great fertilitie of the places
herein at large described and so neere neighbours unto
our Colonies, that they might generally bee awaked and
stirred up unto the diligent observation of every thing that
might turne to the advancement of the action, wherinto
they are so cheerefully entred. Many speciall poynts
concerning the commodities of these partes, the accidents
of the French mens government therein, the causes of
their good or bad successe, with the occasions of the
abandoning one of their forts, and the surprise of the other
by the enemie are herein truely and faithfully recorded:
Which because they be quoted by me in the margents,
and reduced into a large alphabeticall table, which I have
annexed to the ende of the worke, it shall be needlesse to
recken up againe. And that the rather, because the
same with divers other things of chiefest importance are
lively drawne in colours at your no smal charges by the
skillfull painter James Morgues, sometime living in the
Black-fryers in London (whom Monsieur Chastillion then
Admirall of France sent thither with Laudonniere for that
purpose) which was an eye-witnesse of the goodnesse and
fertility of those regions, and hath put downe in writing
many singularities which are not mentioned in this
treatise: which since he hath published together with the
purtraitures. These foure voyages I knew not to whom
I might better offer then to your selfe, and that for divers
just considerations. First, for that as I have sayd before,
they were dedicated unto you in
French: secondly because
now foure times also you have attempted the like upon the
selfe same coast neere adjoyning: thirdly in that you have
persed as farre up into the maine and discovered no lesse
secrets in the partes of your aboad, then the French did
in the places of their inhabiting lastly considering you are
now also ready (upon the late returne of Captaine Stafford
and good newes which he brought you of the safe arrival
of your last Colony in their wished haven) to prosecute
this action more throughly then ever. And here to speake
somewhat of this your enterprise, I affirme, that if the
same may speedily and effectually be pursued, it will
proove farre more beneficiall in divers respects unto this
our realme, then the world, yea many of the wiser sort,
have hitherto imagined. The particular commodities
whereof are wel knowen unto your selfe and some few
others, and are faithfully and with great judgement committed to writing, as you are not ignorant, by one of your
followers, which remained there about a twelvemonth
with your worshipful
Lieutenant M. Ralph Lane, in the
diligent search of the secrets of those Countreys. Touching the speedy and effectual pursuing of your action,
though I wote well it would demaund a princes purse to
have it throughly followed without lingring, yet am I of
opinion, that you shall drawe the same before it be long to
be profitable and gainful aswel to those of our nation there
remaining, as to the merchants of England
that shall
trade hereafter thither, partly by certaine secret commodities already discovered by your servants, & partly by
breeding of divers sorts of beasts in those large and ample
regions, and planting of such things in that warme climat
as wil best prosper there, and our realme standeth most in
need of. And this I find to have bin the course that both
the Spaniards and Portugals tooke in the beginnings of
their discoveries & conquests. For the Spaniards at their
first entrance into Hispaniola found neither suger-canes
nor ginger growing there, nor any kind of our cattel: But
finding the place fit for pasture they sent kine & buls and
sundry sorts of other profitable beasts thither, & transported the plants of suger-canes, and set the rootes of
ginger: the hides of which oxen, with suger and ginger,
are now the chiefe merchandise of that Island. The Portugals also at their first footing in Madera, as John
Barros writes in his first Decade, found nothing there
but mighty woods for timber, whereupon they called the
Island by that name. Howbeit the climate being favourable, they inriched it by their own industry with the best
wines and sugers in the world. The like maner of proceeding they used in the
Isles of the Acores by sowing
therin great quantity of Woad. So dealt they in S.
Thomas under the Equinoctial, and in Brasil
, and sundry
other places. And if our men will follow their steps, by
your wise direction I doubt not but in due time they shall
reape no lesse commoditie and benefit. Moreover there
is none other likelihood but that her Majesty, which hath
Christned, and given the name to your Virginia
, if need
require, will deale after the maner of honorable godmothers, which, seeing their gossips not fully able to
bring up their children themselves, are wont to contribute
to their honest education, the rather if they find any
towardlines or reasonable hope of goodnesse in them.
And if Elizabeth Queene of Castile and Aragon
, after her
husband Ferdinando and she had emptied their cofers and
exhausted their treasures in subduing the kingdome of
Granada
and rooting the Mores, a wicked weed, out of
Spayne, was neverthelesse so zealous of Gods honour,
that (as Fernandus Columbus the sonne of Christopher
Columbus recordeth in the history of the deedes of his
father) she layd part of her owne jewels, which she had in
great account, to gage, to furnish his father foorth upon
his first voyage, before any foot of land of all the West
Indies was discovered; what may we expect of our most
magnificent and gracious prince ELIZABETH of England
,
into whose lappe the Lord hath most plentifully throwne
his treasures, what may wee, I say, hope of her forwardnesse and bounty in advancing of this your most honourable enterprise, being farre more certaine then that of
Columbus
, at that time especially, and tending no lesse to
the glorie of God then that action of the Spanyardes?
For as you may read in the very last wordes of the
relation of Newe Mexico extant nowe in
English, the
maine land, where your last Colonie meane to seate themselves, is replenished with many thousands of Indians,
Which are of better wittes then those of Mexico
and
Peru
, as hath bene found by those that have had some
triall of them : whereby it may bee gathered that they
will easily embrace the Gospell, forsaking their idolatrie,
wherein at this present for the most part they are wrapped
and intangled. A wise Philosopher noting the sundry
desires of divers men, writeth, that if an oxe bee put into
a medowe hee will seeke to fill his bellie with grasse, if a
Storke bee cast in shee will seeke for Snakes, if you turne
in a Hound he will seeke to start an Hare: So sundry
men entring into these discoveries propose unto themselves severall endes. Some seeke authoritie and places
of commandement, others experience by seeing of the
worlde, the most part worldly and transitorie gaine, and
that often times by dishonest and unlawfull meanes, the
fewest number the glorie of God and the saving of the
soules of the poore and blinded infidels. Yet because
divers honest and well disposed persons are entred already
into this your businesse, and that I know you meane
hereafter to sende some such good Churchmen thither,
as may truely say with the Apostle to the Savages, Wee
seeke not yours but you: I conceive great comfort of the
successe of this your action, hoping that the Lorde, whose
power is wont to bee perfected in weakenesse, will blesse
the feeble foundations of your building. Onely bee you
of a valiant courage and faint not, as the Lorde sayd unto
Josue, exhorting him to proceede on forward in the conquest of the land of promise, and remember that private
men have happily wielded and waded through as great
enterprises as this, with lesser meanes then those which
God in his mercie hath bountifully bestowed upon you,
to the singuler good, as I assure my selfe, of this our
Common wealth wherein you live. Hereof we have
examples domesticall and forreine. Remember I pray
you, what you find in the beginning of the Chronicle of
the conquest of Ireland
newly dedicated unto your selfe.
Read you not that Richard Strangbow the decayed earle
of Chepstow
in
Monmuthshire, being in no great favour
of his soveraigne, passed over into that Island in the yere
1171. and accompanied only with certain of his private
friends had in short space such prosperous successe, that
he opened the way for king Henry the second to the
speedy subjection of all that warlike nation to this crowne
of England
? The like conquest of Brasilia
, and annexing
the same to the kingdome of Portugall was first begun
by meane and private men, as Don Antonio de Castillio,
Ambassadour here for that realme, and by office keeper
of all the records and monuments of their discoveries,
assured me in this city in the yere 1581. Now if the
greatnes of the maine of Virginia
, and the large extension
therof, especially to the West, should make you thinke
that the subduing of it, were a matter of more difficulty
then the conquest of Ireland
, first I answere, that as the
late experience of that skilfull pilote and Captaine M. John
Davis to the Northwest (toward which his discovery your
selfe have thrise contributed with the forwardest) hath
shewed a great part to be maine sea, where before was
thought to be maine land, so for my part I am fully
perswaded by Ortelius late reformation of Culvacan and
the gulfe of California
, that the land on the backe part of
Virginia
extendeth nothing so far westward as is put
downe in the Maps of those parts. Moreover it is not to
be denied, but that one hundred men will do more now
among the naked and unarmed people in Virginia
, then
one thousand were able then to do in Ireland
against that
armed and warlike nation in those dales. I say further,
that these two yeres last experience hath plainly shewed,
that we may spare 10000. able men without any misse.
And these are as many as the kingdome of Portugal
had
ever in all their garrisons of the Acores
, Madera, Arguin,
Cape verde, Guinea, Brasill, Mozambique
, Melinde, Zocotora, Ormus, Diu, Goa, Malaca
, the Malucos, and Macao
upon the coast of China
. Yea this I say by the confession
of singuler expert men of their own nation (whose names I
suppresse for certaine causes) which have bene personally
in the East Indies, & have assured me that their kings
had never above ten thousand natural borne Portugals
(their slaves excepted) out of their kingdome remaining
in all the aforesaid territories. Which also this present
yeere I saw confirmed in a secrete extract of the particular
estate of that kingdome and of every governement and
office subject to the same, with the several pensions thereunto belonging. Seeing therefore we are so farre from
want of people, that retyring daily home out of the
Lowe
Countreys they go idle up and downe in swarms for lack
of honest intertainment, I see no fitter place to employ
some part of the better sort of them trained up thus long
in service, then in the inward partes of the firme of
Virginia
against such stubborne Savages as shal refuse
obedience to her Majestie. And doubtlesse many of our
men will bee glad and faine to accept this condition, when
as by the reading of this present treatie they shal understand the fertilitie and riches of the regions confining so
neere upon yours, the great commodities and goodnesse
wherof you have bin contented to suffer to come to light.
In the meane season I humbly commend my selfe and
this my translation unto you, and your selfe, and all those
which under you have taken this enterprise in hand to the
grace and good blessing of the Almighty, which is able to
build farther, and to finish the good worke which in these
our dayes he hath begun by your most Christian and
charitable endevour.
From London the 1. of May
1587.Your L. humble at commandement.
R. HAKLUYT.
The description of the West Indies in generall, but chiefly
and particularly of Florida
.
THAT part of the earth which at this day we call the fourth
part of the world, or America
, or rather the West India,
was unknowen unto our ancestours by reason of the great
distance thereof. In like maner all the
Westerne Islands
and fortunate Isles were not discovered but by those of
our age. Howbeit there have bin some which have said
that they were discoverd in the time of Augustus Caesar,
and that Virgil hath made mention thereof in the sixt
booke of his Æneidos, when he saith, There is a land
beyond the starres, and the course of the yeere and of the
Sunne, where Atlas the Porter of heaven sustaineth the
pole upon his shoulders: neverthelesse it is easie to judge
that hee meaneth not to speake of this land, whereof no
man is found to have written before his time, neither yet
above a thousand yeeres after. Christopher Colon did
first light upon this land in the yeere 1592. And five
yeeres after Americus went thither by the commandement
of the king of Castile
, and gave unto it his own name,
whereupon afterward it was called America
. This man
was very well scene in the Arte of Navigation and in
Astronomie: whereby hee discovered in his time many
lands unknowen unto the ancient Geographers. This Countrey is named by some, the land of Bresill, and the
lande of Parots. It stretcheth it selfe, according unto
Postell, from the one Pole to the other, saving at the
streight of Magelan, whereunto it reacheth 53. degrees
beyond the Equator. I will divide it for the better understanding into three principall parts. That which is
toward the Pole Arcticke on the North is called new
France, because that in the yeere 1524. John Verrazzano
a Florentine was sent by King Francis the first, and by
Madam the Regent his mother unto these newe Regions,
where he went on land, and discovered all the coast which
is from the Tropicke of Cancer, to wit, from the eight
and twentieth unto the fiftieth degree, and father unto the
North. Hee planted in this Countrey the Ensignes and
Armes of the king of France: so that the Spaniardes
themselves which were there afterwarde, have named this
Countrey Terra Francesca. The same then extendeth
itselfe in Latitude from the 25. degree unto the 54. toward
the North: and in Longitude from 210. unto 330. The
Easterne part thereof is called by the late writers The land
of Norumbega, which beginneth at the Bay of Gama,
which separateth it from the
Isle of Canada, whither
Jaques Carthier sayled the yeere 1535. About the which
there are many Ilands, among which is that which is
named Terra de Labrador stretching towarde Groenland
.
In the Westerne part there are many knowen Countreys,
as the Regions of Quivira, Civola, Astatlan, and Terlichichimici. The Southerne part is called Florida
,
because it was discovered on Palme-sunday, which the
Spaniardes call Pascha Florida. The Northerne part is
altogether unknowen.
The second part of all America
is called newe Spaine.
It extendeth from the Tropicke of Cancer in twentie three
degrees and a halfe, unto the ninth degree. In the same
is situated the Citie of Themistitan, and it hath many
Regions, and many Ilandes adjoyned unto it, which are
called the Antilles
, whereof the most famous and renoumed
are Hispaniola and Isabella, with an infinite number of
others. All this land, together with the Bay of Mexico,
and all the Ilands aforesayd, have not in Longitude past
seventie degrees, to wit, from the two hundreth and
fortie, unto three hundreth and ten: it is also long and
narrowe as Italic. The third part of America
is called
Peru
, it is very great, and extendeth it selfe in Latitude
from the tenth degree unto the three and fiftieth beyond
the Equator, to wit, as I have sayde before, unto the
streight of Magelan. It is made in fashion like to an
egge, and is very well knowen upon all sides. The part
where it is largest hath threescore degrees, and from
thence it waxeth narrower and narrower toward both the
endes. In one part of this lande Villegagnon planted
right under the Tropicke of Capricorne, and he called it
France Antarctick, because it draweth toward the pole
Antarctick, as our France doeth toward the Arctick.
New France is almost as great as all our Europe
.
Howbeit the most knowen and inhabited part thereof
is Florida
, whither many Frenchmen have made divers
voyages at sundry times, insomuch that nowe it is the
best knowen Countrey which is in all this part of newe
France. The Cape thereof is as it were a long head of
lande stretching out into the Sea an hundred leagues,
and runneth directly towarde the South: it hath right
over against it five and twentie leagues distant the
Isle
of Cuba otherwise called Isabella, toward the East the
Isles of Bahama and Lucaya, and toward the West the
Bay of Mexico. The Countrey is flat, and divided with
divers rivers, and therefore moyst, and is sandie towards
the Sea shore. There groweth in those partes great
quantitie of Pinetrees, which have no kernels in the
apples which they beare. Their woods are full of Oakes,
Walnuttrees, blacke Cherrietrees, Mulberry trees, Lentiskes, and Chestnut trees, which are more wilde then
those in France. There is great store of Cedars,
Cypresses, Bayes, Palme trees, Hollies, and wilde Vines,
which climbe up along the trees and beare good Grapes.
There is there a kinde of Medlers, the fruite whereof is
better then that of France, and bigger. There are also
Plumtrees, which beare very faire fruite, but such as is
not very good. There are Raspasses, and a little berrie
which we call among us Blues, which are very good to
eate. There growe in that Countrey a kinde of Rootes
which they call in their language Hasez, whereof in
necessitie they make bread. There is also there the tree
called Esquine, which is very good against the Pockes and
other contagious diseases. The Beastes best knowen in
this Countrey are Stagges, Hindes, Goates, Deere,
Leopards, Ounces, Luserns, divers sortes of Wolves,
wilde Dogs, Hares, Cunnies, and a certaine kinde of beast
that differeth little from the Lyon of Africa. The foules
are Turkeycocks, Partridges, Parrots, Pigions, Ringdoves, Turtles, Blackbirdes, Crowes, Tarcels, Faulcons,
Laynerds, Herons, Cranes, Storkes, wilde Geese, Malards,
Cormorants Hernshawes, white, red, blacke and gray,
and an infinite sort of all wilde foule. There is such
abundance of Crocodiles, that oftentimes in swimming
men are assayled by them; of Serpents there are many
sorts. There is found among the Savages good quantitie
of Gold and Silver, which is gotten out of the shippes
that are lost upon the coast, as I have understood by the
Savages themselves. They use traffique thereof one with
another. And that which maketh me the rather beleeve
it, is, that on the coast towarde the Cape, where commonly the shippes are cast away, there is more store of
Silver then toward the North. Neverthelesse they say,
that in the Mountaines of Appalatcy there are Mines of
Copper, which I thinke to be Golde. There is also in
this Countrey great store of graynes and herbes, whereof
might be made excellent good dyes and paintings of all
kind of colours. And in trueth the Indians which take
pleasure in painting of their skins, know very well how
to use the same. The men are of an Olive colour, of
great stature, faire, without any deformitie, and well proportioned. They cover their privities with the skinne of
a Stagge well dressed. The most part of them have their
bodies, armes, and thighes painted with very faire
devises: the painting whereof can never bee taken away,
becase the same is pricked into their flesh. Their haire
is very blacke and reacheth even downe to their hips,
howbeit they trusse it up after a fashion that becommeth
them very well. They are great dissemblers and traitours,
valiant of their persons & fight very well. They have
none other weapons but their bowes and arrowes. They
make the string of their bow of a gut of a Stag, or of
a Stags skin, which they know how to dresse as well as
any man in France, and with as different sorts of colours.
They head their arrowes with the teeth of fishes and stone,
which they worke very finely and handsomly. They
exercise their yong men to runne well, and they make a
game among themselves, which he winneth that hath the
longest breath. They also exercise themselves much in
shooting. They play at the ball in this maner: they set
up a tree in the middest of a place which is eight or nine
fathom high, in the top whereof there is set a square mat
made of reedes or Bulrushes, which whosoever hitteth in
playing thereat, winneth the game. They take great
pleasure in hunting and fishing. The kings of the
Countrey make great warre one against the other, which
is not executed but by surprise, and they kill all the men
they can take: afterward they cut of their heads to have
their haire, which returning home they carry away, to
make thereof their triumph when they come to their
houses. They save the women and children and nourish
them and keepe them alwayes with them. Being returned
home from the warre, they assemble all their subjects,
and for joy three days and three nights they make good
cheare, they daunce & sing, likewise they make the most
ancient women of the Countrey to dance, holding the
haires of their enemies in their hands: and in dauncing
they sing praises to the Sunne, ascribing unto him the
honour of the victory. They have no knowledge of God,
nor of any religion, saving of that which they see, as the
Sunne and the Moone. They have their Priests to whom
they give great credit, because they are great magicians,
great soothsayers, and callers upon divels. These Priests
serve them in stead of Physitions and Chirurgions. They
carry alwayes about them a bag full of herbes and drugs
to cure the sicke diseased which for the most part are
sick of the pocks, for they love women & maidens
exceedingly, which they call the daughters of the Sunne :
and some of them are Sodomites. They marry, and
every one hath his wife, and it is lawfull for the King to
have two or three: yet none but the first is honoured and
acknowledged for Queene: and none but the children of
the first wife inherite the goods and authoritie of the
father. The women doe all the businesse at home. They
keepe not house with them after they know they be with
child. And they eate not of that which they touch as
long as they have their flowers. There are in all this
Countrey many Hermaphrodites, which take all the
greatest paine, and beare the victuals when they goe to
warre. They paint their faces much, and sticke their
haire full of feathers or downe, that they may seeme more
terrible. The victuals which they carry with them, are of
bread, of hony, and of meale made of Maiz parched in the
fire, which they keepe without being marred a long while.
They carry also sometimes fish, which they cause to be
dressed in the smoke. In necessitie they eat a thousand
rifraffes, even to the swallowing downe of coales, and
putting sand into the pottage that they make with this
meale. When they goe to warre, their King marcheth
first, with a clubbe in the one hand, and his bowe in the
other, with his quiver full of arrowes. All his men follow
him, which have likewise their bowes and arrowes.
While they fight, they make great cries and exclamations.
They take no enterprise in hand, but first they assemble
oftentimes their Councell together, and they take very
good advisement before they growe to a resolution. They
meete together every morning in a great common house,
whither their King repaireth, and setteth him downe upon
a seate which is higher then the seates of the other: where
all of them one after another come and salute him: and
the most ancient begin their salutations, lifting up both
their handes twise as high as their face, saying, ha, he,
ya, and the rest answer ha, ha. Assoone as they have
done their salutation, every man sitteth him downe upon
the seates which are round about in the house. If there
be any thing to intreate of, the King calleth the Jawas,
that is to say, their Priestes, and the most ancient men,
and asketh them their advise. Afterward he commaundeth
Cassine
to be brewed, which is a drinke made of the
leaves of a certaine tree: They drinke this Cassine
very
hotte: he drinketh first, then he causeth to be given
thereof to all of them one after another in the same boule,
which holdeth well a quart measure of Paris
. They make
so great account of this drinke, that no man may taste
thereof in this assembly, unlesse hee hath made proofe of
his valure in the warre. Moreover this drinke hath such a
vertue, that assoone as they have drunke it, they become
all in a sweate, which sweate being past, it taketh away
hunger and thirst for foure and twenty houres after.
When a King dyeth, they burie him very solemnly, and
upon his grave they set the cuppe wherein he was woont
to drinke: and round about the sayde grave they sticke
many arrowes, and weepe and fast three dayes together
without ceassing. All the kings which were his friends
make the like mourning: and in token of the love which
they bare him, they cut of more then the one halfe of
their haire, as well men as women. During the space of
sixe Moones (so they reckon their moneths) there are
certaine women appoynted which bewaile the death of this
King, crying with a loude voyce thrise a day, to wit, in
the Morning, at Noone, and at Evening. All the goods
of this King are put into his house, and afterward they
set it on fire, so that nothing is ever more after to be
seene. The like is done with the goods of the Priestes,
and besides they burie the bodies of the Priests in their
houses, and then they set them on fire. They sowe their
Maiz twise a yere, to wit, in March and in June, and all
in one and the same soyle. The sayd Maiz from the time
that it is sowed untill the time that it be ready to be
gathered, is but three moneths on the ground. The other
6. moneths they let the earth rest. They have also faire
Pumpions, & very good Beanes. They never dung their
land, onely when they would sowe, they set the weedes
on fire, which grewe up the 6. moneths, and burne them
all. They dig their ground with an instrument of wood
which is fashioned like a broad mattocke, wherewith they
digge their Vines in France, they put two graines; of Maiz
together. When the land is to be sowed, the King commaundeth one of his men to assemble his subjects every
day to labour, during which labour the King causeth store
of that drinke to be made for them, whereof we have
spoken. At the time when the Maiz is gathered, it is all
carried into a common house, where it is distributed to
every man according to his qualitie. They sowe no more
but that which they thinke will serve their turnes for sixe
moneths, & that very scarcely. For during the Winter
they retire themselves for three or foure moneths in the
yeere into the woods, where they make little cotages of
Palme boughes for their retraite, and live there of Maste,
of Fish which they take, of Oisters, of Stagges, of
Turkeycockes, and other beasts which they take. They
eate all their meate broyled on the coales, and dressed in
the smoake, which in their language they call Boucaned.
They eate willingly the flesh of the Crocodile: and in
deede it is faire and white: and were it not that it
savoureth too much like Muske we would oftentimes have
eaten thereof. They have a custome among them, that
when they finde themselves sicke, where they feele the
paine, whereas we cause ourselves to be let blood, their
Physitions sucke them untill they make the blood follow.
The women are likewise of good proportion and tall,
and of the same colour that the men be of, painted as the
men be: Howbeit when they are borne, they be not so
much of an Olive colour, and are farre whiter. For the
chiefe cause that maketh them to be of this colour proceedes of annointings of oyle which they use among them:
and they doe it for a certaine ceremonie which I could not
learne, and because of the Sunne which shineth hote upon
their bodies. The agilitie of the women is so great, that
they can swimme over the great Rivers bearing their
children upon one of their armes. They climbe up also
very nimbly upon the highest trees in the Countrey.
Beholde in briefe the description of the Countrey, with
the nature and customes of the Inhabitants: which I was
very willing to write, before I entred any further into the
discourse of my historic, to the end that the Readers
might be the better prepared to understand that, which I
meane hereafter to entreate of.
